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Tyne and Wear /ˌtaɪn ən ˈwɪər/ is a metropolitan county in north east England around the mouths of the Rivers Tyne and Wear. It came into existence as a metropolitan county in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972. It consists of the five metropolitan boroughs of South Tyneside, North Tyneside, City of Newcastle upon Tyne, Gateshead and the City of Sunderland.

Prior to reforms in 1974, the territory comprising the county of Tyne and Wear straddled the border between the counties of Northumberland and County Durham. North Tyneside and Newcastle upon Tyne had previously existed within of Northumberland, whereas South Tyneside, Gateshead and Sunderland were all previously within the borders of County Durham, with the River Tyne forming the border of the two counties.

Tyne and Wear is bounded on the east by the North Sea, and as a ceremonial county, shares borders with Northumberland to the north and County Durham to the south.

Tyne and Wear County Council was abolished in 1986, and so its districts (the metropolitan boroughs) are now unitary authorities. However, the metropolitan county continues to exist in law and as a geographic frame of reference.

History

Newcastle upon Tyne, Gateshead and Sunderland were all constituted as county boroughs under the Local Government Act 1888 (Newcastle had had 'county borough' status as the County and Town of Newcastle upon Tyne since 1400). These were joined by Tynemouth in 1904. Between the county boroughs various settlements were part of the administrative counties of Durham and Northumberland.

The need to reform local government on Tyneside was recognised as early as 1935, when a Royal Commission to Investigate the Conditions of Local Government on Tyneside was appointed. The three commissioners were to "examine the system of local government in the areas of local government north and south of the river Tyne from the sea to the boundary of the Rural District of Castle Ward and Hexham in the County of Northumberland and to the Western boundary of the County of Durham, to consider what changes, if any, should be made in the existing arrangements with a view to securing greater economy and efficiency, and to make recommendations."

The report of the Royal Commission was published in 1937. It recommended the establishment of a Regional Council for Northumberland and Tyneside (to be called the "Northumberland Regional Council") to administer services that needed to be exercised over a wide area, with a second tier of smaller units for other local government purposes. The second-tier units would be formed by amalgamating the various existing boroughs and districts. The county boroughs in the area would lose their status. Within this area, a single municipality would be formed covering the four county boroughs of Newcastle, Gateshead, Tynemouth, South Shields and other urban districts and boroughs.

A minority report proposed amalgamation of Newcastle, Gateshead, Wallsend, Jarrow, Felling, Gosforth, Hebburn and Newburn into a single "county borough of Newcastle-on-Tyneside". The 1937 report was not acted upon : local authorities were unable to agree on a scheme and the legislation of the time did not allow central government to compel one.

Tyneside (excluding Sunderland) was a Special Review Area under the Local Government Act 1958. The Local Government Commission for England came back with a recommendation to create a new county of Tyneside based on the review area, divided into four separate boroughs. This was not implemented. The Redcliffe-Maud Report proposed a Tyneside unitary authority, again excluding Sunderland, which was to form a separate East Durham unitary authority.

The White Paper that led to the Local Government Act 1972 proposed as "area 2" a metropolitan county including Newcastle and Sunderland, extending as far south down the coast as Seaham and Easington, and bordering "area 4" (which would become Cleveland). The Bill as presented in November 1971 pruned back the southern edge of the area, and gave it the name 'Tyneside'. The name 'Tyneside' was controversial on Wearside, and the name changed to 'Tyne and Wear' by a government amendment upon the request of Sunderland County Borough Council.

post-1974		pre-1974
Metropolitan county	Metropolitan borough	County boroughs	Non-county boroughs	Urban districts	Rural districts
Tyne and Wear is an amalgamation of 24 former local government districts, including five county boroughs.	Gateshead	Gateshead	-	Blaydon • Felling • Ryton • Whickham •	Chester-le-Street
	Newcastle upon Tyne	Newcastle upon Tyne	-	Gosforth • Newburn •	Castle Ward •
	North Tyneside	Tynemouth	Wallsend • Whitley Bay •	Longbenton • Seaton Valley •	-
	South Tyneside	South Shields	Jarrow	Boldon • Hebburn •	-
	Sunderland	Sunderland	-	Washington• Houghton-le-Spring• Hetton-le-Hole•	Easington •

Local government

Although the metropolitan county council was abolished in 1986, several joint bodies exist to run certain services on a county-wide basis. Most notable is the Tyne and Wear Passenger Transport Authority, which co-ordinates transport policy. Through its passenger transport executive, known as Nexus, it owns and operates the Tyne and Wear Metro light rail system, and the Shields ferry service and the Tyne Tunnel, linking communities on either side of the River Tyne. Also through Nexus, the authority subsidises socially-necessary transport services (including taxis) and operates a concessionary fares scheme for the elderly and disabled.

The Passenger Transport Authority is a "precepting authority", raising funds by imposing a levy on the Council Tax of the five constituent authorities of Tyne and Wear.

Other joint bodies include the Tyne and Wear Fire and Rescue Service and Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums, which was created from the merger of the Tyne and Wear Archives Service and Tyne and Wear Museums. These joint bodies are administered by representatives of all five of the constituent councils. In addition the Northumbria Police force, which covers the whole of Northumberland and Tyne and Wear, is one of several joint forces in England spanning two or more counties. The force was created in 1974, and so is not a by-product of the abolition of the county council.

Politics

Tyne and Wear is divided into 12 Parliamentary constituencies. In July 2005, all these constituencies were represented by Labour. Historically, the area has been a Labour stronghold: for example, South Shields is the only Parliamentary constituency that has never returned a Conservative Member of Parliament (MP) to the House of Commons since the Reform Act of 1832.

Reviews by the Boundary Commission may lead to a change in the number of parliamentary constituencies in Tyne and Wear, reducing them by one. This could see a constituency returning a Conservative MP as the reorganisation of constituencies in the City of Sunderland has created a Sunderland Central constituency, encompassing the Conservative-held wards north and south of the River Wear. Washington and Sunderland West and Houghton and Sunderland South are the other new constituencies, although there has been criticism that Sunderland does not share the same cultural and historical links that Washington and Houghton-le-Spring do, which was reflected in the old Houghton and Washington East constituency. The small part of the Gateshead East and Washington West constituency that lies within the City of Sunderland will be included in the Sunderland North and Washington constituency.

At the level of local government, three of the region's five unitary authorities were controlled by Labour in 2005, the exceptions being Newcastle City Council and North Tyneside Council. Since an upset result in the local elections of 2004, the former has been controlled by the Liberal Democrats. No one party has overall control of North Tyneside Council: while the Conservatives hold the greatest number of seats, 28, they lack an overall majority, there are 32 other councillors. North Tyneside is the only authority in the area with a directly elected Mayor. Currently a Conservative member.

Settlements

For a complete list of all villages, towns and cities see the list of places in Tyne and Wear.

Places of interest

• Gateshead
  • Angel of the North
  • Beamish Museum, which crosses the Gateshead/Chester-le-Street boundary
  • BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art
  • Gateshead International Stadium
  • Gateshead Millennium Bridge
  • Gibside
  • MetroCentre
  • Saltwell Park
  • Tanfield Railway, Sunniside (crosses boundary into Derwentside)
  • The Sage Gateshead
• Newcastle upon Tyne
  • Discovery Museum (previously Museum of Science & Engineering)
  • Hadrian's Wall
  • Hancock Museum
  • Jesmond Dene public park
  • Newcastle Castle Keep
  • Sports Direct Arena
  • Leazes Park
  • Centre for Life
  • Town Moor
  • Tyneside cinema
  • Newcastle Chinatown
  • Quayside
  • Metro Radio Arena
  • Laing Art Gallery
  • Theatre Royal
  • Northumberland Street
  • Grey Street
  • Grey's Monument
  • The Biscuit Factory
  • Tyne Bridge
• North Tyneside
  • Segedunum Roman Fort & Museum, Wallsend
  • St Mary's Island bird reserve
  • Tynemouth Castle
• South Tyneside
  • Arbeia Roman Fort & Museum, South Shields
  • Marsden Rock bird reserve
  • Souter Point Lighthouse
  • Bede's World, Jarrow
• Sunderland
  • The Museum and Winter Gardens
  • Mowbray Park
  • The National Glass
  • Hylton Castle
  • Penshaw Monument
  • St. Peter's Church
  • Stadium of Light
  • The Empire Theatre
  • Northern Gallery for Contemporary Art

See also

• List of Lord Lieutenants of Tyne and Wear
• List of High Sheriffs of Tyne and Wear

References

1. Office of National Statistics - Gazetteer of the old and new geographies of the United Kingdom, p48. URL accessed March 12, 2007.
2. Metropolitan Counties and Districts, Beginners' Guide to UK Geography, Office for National Statistics, September 17, 2004. URL accessed March 12, 2007.
3. North East England Counties, The Boundary Commission for England. URL accessed March 12, 2007.
4. London Gazette, 10 May 1935
5. Local Government in the Tyneside Area (Cmd.5402)
6. Government of Tyneside : a Regional Council. The Times. March 19, 1937.
7. Local Government on Tyneside. Sir K. Wood and Report of Commission. The Times. September 22, 1937.
8. Hansard, 6 July 1972, column 909

External links

• Template:Dmoz

v t e Ceremonial county of Tyne and Wear
North East England Portal
Metropolitan districts	City of Newcastle upon Tyne City of Sunderland Metropolitan Borough of Gateshead Metropolitan Borough of North Tyneside Metropolitan Borough of South Tyneside
Major settlements (cities in italics)	Birtley Blaydon Boldon Cullercoats Gateshead Gosforth Hebburn Hetton-le-Hole Houghton-le-Spring Jarrow Killingworth Longbenton Newcastle upon Tyne North Shields Ryton South Shields Sunderland Tynemouth Wallsend Washington Whickham Whitley Bay See also: List of civil parishes in Tyne and Wear
Topics	Museums Parliamentary constituencies People Places Population of major settlements SSSIs

v t e Districts of North East England
County Durham	County Durham Darlington Hartlepool Stockton-on-Tees
Northumberland	Northumberland
Tyne and Wear	Gateshead Newcastle upon Tyne North Tyneside South Tyneside Sunderland
Teesside, North Yorkshire	Middlesbrough Redcar and Cleveland Stockton-on-Tees

51°57′N 1°32′W / 51.950°N 1.533°W / 51.950; -1.533

• Tyne and Wear
• Metropolitan counties
• NUTS 2 statistical regions of the United Kingdom